FX.co ★ Gold Futures Settle Slightly Higher

Gold futures settled higher on Tuesday as the dollar struggled to find direction ahead of the Federal Reserve's monetary policy decision, due on Wednesday.

The dollar index, which dropped to 101.19 in the Asian session, recovered and climbed to 101.65 around late morning before retreating to 101.40 later on in the session.

Gold futures for August ended higher by $1.50 at $1,963.70 an ounce, the highest settlement since July 17.

Silver futures for September ended up $0.243 at $24.824 an ounce, while Copper futures for September settled at $3.9155 per pound, gaining $0.0600.

The Fed is widely expected to raise interest rates by another 25 basis points. The focus is on the accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for future interest rates.

The European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of Japan (BOJ) are scheduled to announce their monetary policy decisions later in the week.

The ECB is expected to raise rate by 25 basis points, while the BOJ is likely to stick to its ultra-loose policy.

In U.S. economic news, the Conference Board released a report showing U.S. consumer confidence improved by much more than expected in the month of July.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index jumped to 117.0 in July from an upwardly revised 110.1 in June. Economists had expected the index to climb to 111.8 from the 109.7 originally reported for the previous month.

With the much bigger than expected surge, the consumer confidence index reached its highest level since July 2021.